


everything's a mess and no one likes to be alone

by frozenburritos



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Prom, Underage Drinking, anyways this is about my happy boys, camt believe i forgot that one, happy boys, she doesn't really have a character tbh oops, tbh they deserve this, zachs gf could be a readers insert if ur into that i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 09:03:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11158638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenburritos/pseuds/frozenburritos
Summary: justin and alex are... happy for once........... honestly this is probably ooc cuz alex isn't being a smartass 100% of the time but you know what thats my creative liberty





	everything's a mess and no one likes to be alone

**Author's Note:**

> i'm a slut for alex being more dominant in public because of justin's internalized homophobia don't @ me
> 
> also before this even starts just know alex has a black shirt and white jacket and justin has a black shirt and a black jacket but it would be awkward to shoehorn that into the story so there u go

“A-and you’re sure he’ll like it and everything? He’ll have a good time?” Justin Foley nervously asked into the phone, staring at himself in his dingy full-length mirror as he spoke.

“ _Yes, dude, chillax. It’s prom, it’s not like he could have a_ bad _time_.” Zach’s tinny voice pointed out from the speakers. Justin shrugged his shoulders, forgetting that his friend couldn’t see. “ _I’m on your team. I want you two to be happy together as much as you do, man_.” 

“Thanks Zach. You’re the best,” Justin sighed before ending the call, adjusting his bowtie and heading to his bedroom door. He hesitated before grabbing the handle out of old habit. Remembering Seth and his mom were out of town for the week, he relaxed slightly. The door opened with a soft creak, startling dust particles into the still air. 

He grabbed the flowered corsage and made his way to the front door slowly, dodging piles of dirty clothing on the floor to try and keep his rented black shoes spotless. Zach’s car was now parked in front of his house, honking twice to signal to Justin he was ready to pick him up. With one last deep breath, Justin crossed the dead grass laid out in the courtyard of his apartment complex and hopped in. 

-

It was still light outside when Justin arrived, corsage in hand, at Alex’s front door. Zach was still hanging back in his Kia, keeping true to their plan to carpool. Justin anxiously turned back, receiving a thumbs-up from the boy in the car. Instilled with false courage, he knocked on the door once, twice, three times. There was a soft scrambling behind it and the solid wood was soon replaced with Alex. His dark blue eyes contrasted wildly with his white suit jacket, and even more with the bouquet of bright red roses in his arms. 

“Hey,” Justin breathed after a moment, too focused on Alex’s face to have fully noticed the flowers separating the two. “You look beautiful.” 

Alex smiled bashfully, a real smile, ducking his head to hide the pink on his cheeks. Justin reached up, gently turning his face to make eye contact. Alex searched his face for the first time that night, looking desperately for something Justin hoped he could find. Both of his hands dropped to his sides for a split second before he reached around Justin’s body, holding him tightly in a moment of pure bliss. Shock froze him in place for a moment until he realized what was happening, wrapping his arms so tightly around Alex he was worried it would crush him. When the two heard a cough from behind Justin, they broke apart, facing the source of the noise.

“Do you guys want a picture together or something?” Zach asked awkwardly, holding up his phone and gesturing at the couple. Alex was the first to laugh, nodding gratefully. He attached the vivid red corsage to his wrist, adjusting the flowers in the bouquet to look perfect for the photos. 

-

All the way to Zach’s date’s house, Justin and Alex giggled and spoke in hushed tones as they held hands in the backseat. Zach sighed through his nose as they pulled up at her place, ignored by the disgustingly cute puppy-love behind him. Arriving at the school was no different, save Zach’s boredom, which was now being rectified by the girl in the front seat.

“We’re here, lovebirds,” Zach stated as he twisted his car key in the parking lot of Liberty High. The two looked up, startled, from whatever they had been talking about. Zach looked over at his date, rolling his eyes dramatically.

The teens excitedly hopped out of the car, energy flowing into the already electric air. Nervously, Alex lifted an elbow in Justin’s direction for him to take. After anxiously glancing around at the nearby students, he hesitantly complied, allowing the other boy to lead him to the door of the school. By the time they reached the entrance they were practically running, joining the dense crowd of people slowly shuffling into the already overstuffed gymnasium. 

Cheap plastic golden stars hung from the high ceilings, glitter covering the floor. A creased and overall frumpy sheet of plastic picturing a dark city skyline was tacked up against the far wall, an underpaid photographer standing uninterestedly nearby. Pink light washed over the scene, casting a filter over the night. 

“It’s gorgeous,” Alex whispered under his breath, mostly to himself. Justin squeezed Alex’s arm reassuringly, moving his hand down slowly to grab for his fingers instead. At the same moment the blond reached over to place a quick kiss to his boyfriend’s cheek, Tony Padilla’s voice boomed from the speakers mounted to walls.

“And now for the first slow song of the night,” he announced, quickly switching the track playing from an upbeat pop song to _I’m With You_ by Avril Lavigne. Alex smiled widely, dimples back in full, lethal force. Alex giggled as he reached around Justin’s waist, bringing the two into a slow sway.

“I guess Tony just couldn’t resist injecting his own taste into the playlist,” Justin joked, words partially muffled by the shoulder he was shoving his face into. Alex only smiled once more, soaking in as many of the details as he could about this night. The way he could hear Justin’s soft breathing in his ear, feel his heart beat in his chest. The spreading heat where his cheek was resting on Alex’s suit. 

The song ended, bringing about the beginning of another 90’s hit. Justin moved his face, pausing to gently peck Alex’s shoulder before readjusting to rest his forehead against the other boy’s. 

“Should we get some drinks?” Justin asked as innocently as possible. The night was still young, the punch probably still relatively light on the alcohol.

Alex nodded, pecking Justin’s lips and grabbing his hand to drag him towards the folding table near the bleachers that held the drinks and single-use plastic cups. A banner reading “A Night in Paris” was draped over the front, stained already from clumsy students trying to use the soup ladle that had been placed in the large punch bowl. The teacher that was supposed to be watching for students spiking the drink had passed out in his uncomfortable metal chair, snoring away, oblivious to the inevitable events going on before him.

Justin’s hand was released so Alex could pour cups for the both of them. Missing the contact the action had provided, Justin hooked an arm around Alex’s shoulders casually. He still wasn’t totally used to this “having a boyfriend in public” thing. 

“No homo,” Alex mocked in a fake deep voice, handing Justin his red Solo cup. Before he could react, Alex cheers’d against his drink and tipped his head back to chug as much of his as he could. Justin was too preoccupied with staring at the now-exposed skin of Alex’s neck to copy his actions. With a dry swallow, Justin pulled himself out of his trance to take a sip of his drink just as Alex slammed his cup down, face contorted at the flavor of the overly sweet fruit juice with the burn of alcohol. He giggled, hiccuping and raising a fist to the air in success. All too soon another slow song had started playing, lowering the volume of the room to the simple shuffle of fabric and scuff of shoes against the hardwood flooring.

Alex grabbed the tie around Justin’s neck, leading him forcefully back towards the dance floor. Once the pair had reached a place he deemed acceptable, he let go, facing the brunet. The cup in Justin’s hand still had a few sips of punch left, silently prompting Alex to steal it from him, downing the remainder and tossing the trash somewhere far behind him. Justin wasn’t used to seeing Alex being this dominant, shocked into paralyzation. Before he could react, Alex had hold of his wrists and was placing his hands somewhere on his waist. Unsatisfied still, he manually lowered them slightly, leaving them in a more compromising position. Justin was finally back to earth by now, adjusting their haphazard sway to fit more with the beat of the song. Slowly Alex’s head leaned forward, reaching Justin’s mouth in a soft kiss. He breathed something into the narrow space between the two, but it was lost in the loud lyrics of whatever had begun playing. 

A familiar buzz eventually began to settle over Alex and eventually Justin. Everything became fuzzier, the songs themselves mattering less and the boy in front of Alex mattering more. Once they had gotten bored with the simple rhythm of alternating between slow dancing, club dancing, and drinking, they decided to try and meet up with Zach again. 

The two were giggling messes by the time they found the boy, so close to each other they might as well have been Siamese twins. 

“No, you ask,” Alex laughed, stepping on Justin’s foot and grabbing his hand. 

“No, you ask,” Justin replied, slightly less tipsy than his boyfriend. 

“What’s up guys?” Zach questioned, looking between the two with a raised eyebrow. 

“We want to go to Rosie’s,” Alex finally stated, trying his best to hold eye contact with Zach without bursting out into gut-busting laughter again. Zach stopped trying to focus on the boys, instead turning to the girl on his arm. She nodded with a smile, prompting him to grab the keys to his car out of his pocket and start on his way out of the gym. Alex and Justin followed behind closely, Alex favoring staring at Justin’s face to watching where he was going. The pair had almost made it to the glowing green exit sign when Alex adjusted his grip from Justin’s hand to his bicep, eyes finally wandering to the rest of the crowd. The movement gave Justin a reason to stop, glancing over to see what had triggered the reaction. 

“Are you okay baby?” he asked as quietly as he could considering the volume of the music, reaching up with the arm that wasn’t being hugged to death by Alex.

“Yeah, I just, we were going fast and I was getting dizzy s’all,” he explained, nervously casting a glance to a group just beyond Justin’s shoulder. He hadn’t quite taken the hint that Alex was upset yet, simply nodding and tracing his cheekbones with his thumb. 

They stood like this for a while, Alex searching Justin’s face once more. His lips were slightly parted, a look of intense focus covering his features as he gently ghosted his thumb over Alex’s jaw, connecting back into his cheekbones and eventually over his mouth. He snapped out of his trance when Alex leaned forward, closing the distance between them to take his lips in a kiss. They parted soon after, Alex preoccupied with scanning the groups surrounding them once again. If Justin hadn’t been paying such close attention to his face, he wouldn’t have noticed the subtle narrowing of his eyes before he leaned in once more, kissing him with more intensity than he had before. Justin accepted what was going on, waiting a moment before breaking away.

“What’s up?” he asked as he finally caught on to the strange behavior. Alex simply shook his head, grinning stiffly before craning his neck to whisper in Justin’s ear as suggestively as he could. 

“Am I not allowed to express my love for my boyfriend in public?” Justin hardly noticed the use of the coveted L-word as a descriptor towards him when a certain person standing by the bleachers caught his eye. 

“Is this about Jessica Davis?” Justin kept his tone as casual as possible. The statement had caused his heart to speed up and butterflies to once again haunt his stomach. Love wasn’t a common emotion in Justin Foley’s life, especially as one to receive rather than give. 

“I-” Alex started, shaking his head at himself, “sort of. A little bit. I was afraid if you saw her in that dress she’s wearing you’d maybe- I dunno.” He shook his head more rapidly now, withdrawing from Justin until they made no contact at all. 

“Sounds like I should be jealous of her too if you’re noticing that dress so much,” he smirked, reaching for Alex’s hand. He blushed, but thankfully for him Justin wouldn’t be able to notice under the bright pink of the lights. 

Alex finally remembered they had a place to be, dragging Justin along behind him as he continued on his way to the double doors at the front of the school. Cold springtime wind hit their faces the moment Alex had pushed open the door. Justin shivered lightly, causing Alex to crack a smile and shrug off his white suit jacket, handing it to the other boy. Justin’s blush was entirely visible under the pale full moon, smile highlighted by the street lamps dotted around the vast parking lot they now stood in. Justin would never admit it, but the contrast between Alex’s light hair and the black button up he was now wearing was the most beautiful thing he could remember seeing. A gentle tug to his hand reminded him that they were trying to get somewhere. Two pairs of eyes scanned the rows of cars back and forth dozens of times before finally noticing where Zach had parked, breaking into a run while still keeping his grip on Justin’s hand. The pure ring of teenage laughter pierced the night air, catching the attention of none other than Zach Dempsey. 

He gestured widely towards himself with his arm, smiling when he noticed the double layer of jackets over Justin’s shoulders. A crowd was gathered near Zach’s car, all chatting amongst themselves, seemingly uninterrupted by Justin and Alex’s appearance. 

“What’s with this whole party out here?” Alex asked, smile twitching at the corners. 

“I told some other people about your plan to go to Rosie’s,” he explained.

“Cool,” Alex nodded in a stilted way, “so are we going to leave soon?”

“Actually, yeah, we were waiting on you,” Zach nodded, his girl leaving his side to enter the passenger side door. “Let’s go!” Zach shouted in his football voice, grabbing the attention of all the nearby teens. Almost as soon as he’d said it the area was cleared, everybody having hopped into the nearest car. Alex reached for the car door, but didn’t manage to get to it before Justin had opened it, gesturing grandly at the three empty seats in front of him. Alex relaxed somewhat when he fully realized that they would be the only ones riding with Zach. 

A now slightly wilted bouquet of red roses rested on the middle seat, which Alex clumsily stumbled over to reach his place. Justin laughed, shaking his head as he made himself comfortable in his spot, watching with adoration as Alex fumbled with putting on his seatbelt.

-

Eventually the small group made it to the diner, far from the first to arrive. Already multiple couples had been seated, all talking loudly over each other and annoying the few older visitors to the restaurant. Zach immediately assimilated, high-fiving Monty and sliding easily into a booth near them. A lone empty table sat near the door, removed slightly from the noise of the other students. 

Without even thinking about it, Alex took a seat, smiling as his boyfriend sat across from him. A waiter eventually reached them, tiredly asking what they wanted to order. 

“A milkshake,” Justin answered immediately, “the Reese’s one.” After waiting an appropriate amount of time for Alex to add anything on to the order, he left, notepad in hand with the scribbled order written in blue ink on the top sheet. 

Alex sighed softly, staring out the window in a near dreamlike state. 

“What’s up?” Justin asked, brows knitting. Alex placed his folded arms heavily on the table, resting his chin in the crook. 

“I just can’t help but worry that this is the exact booth Hannah got harassed in,” he explained. A beat passed before he buried his face in his elbow. Justin glanced around at the people around them before gingerly reaching forward and gently squeezing one of his arms. 

“Hey, don’t worry about that, this is supposed to be a fun night,” Justin regretted the words the second they came out of his mouth, immediately causing him to try and think of better ones. “I mean, like, she- she would want you to be happy?” he accidentally ended the statement as a question.

Surprisingly, Alex just started laughing.

“Man, you’re _really_ bad at this,” he lifted his head to reveal a wide smile cracking his face in two. Justin couldn’t help but sheepishly release a small chuckle, staring down at the hand still resting on Alex’s arm. 

“You’re kinda right,” he shrugged. The waiter from earlier returned in a rush of air, dropping the milkshake and one straw down on the table and taking off. Justin raised an eyebrow. 

“That’s even more romantic than sharing,” he stated, unwrapping the straw and placing in happily into the tall glass. 

“What, me watching you enjoy yourself while I just sit here?” Alex scoffed, mock offended. Justin smiled, nodding his head eagerly. “Oh, jeez.” 

He reached an arm across the table, carefully pulling the cherry off the top of the perfectly swirled whipped cream. Making sure Justin was focusing on him, he lowered the entire thing into his mouth. A few moments later, he reached back in, revealing the same cherry with a tied stem. Justin’s jaw dropped, creating a perfect window of time for Alex to grab the entire milkshake from him, taking a long drink from the singular straw. Justin was still gaping at him, too impressed to try and steal it back. 

“Okay, you’re looking at me like I have two heads now,” Alex giggled. Justin only continued to stare, running his fingers along the edge of the sleeve on the suit jacket that had been returned to Alex at some point during the drive over. His corsage was still in place, although it was slightly more droopy than it had been at the beginning of the evening. 

“I’ve never met anybody that could actually do that, like, in real life,” he struggled to find the words through the haze of alcohol clouding his mind. Alex half shrugged, sliding the glass back over the tabletop for Justin to continue enjoying. The boys stared at each other almost longingly as he sipped at the ice cream, almost choking when the sudden pressure of Alex’s hand weighed on his thigh under the table. 

-

One Uber later and the boys were back at Alex’s house, slowly making out on his bed as quietly as they possibly could. Alex’s parents, definitely aware of what happened on prom night, were still at home, although they weren’t fully aware that Justin was more than a friend. 

Alex lazily rutted his hips down against Justin’s thigh one final time before rolling off of him, breathing slightly heavily. A soft whine escaped Justin’s lips, needy hands tugging at Alex’s unbuttoned long sleeve shirt. He sighed, standing up and fully shrugging off the top, pulling his unlatched belt and white slacks down all the way until the only thing that remained on him was his shark patterned boxers, exposing the semi he’d contracted from the previous chain of events.

Justin snorted faintly at the sight, yawning grandly. His own shirt and jacket were long abandoned, now laying somewhere in a heap on Alex’s floor. 

Alex smiled when he flopped back down onto his bed, peppering Justin’s face in delicate kisses. 

“Are we going to.. continue?” Justin asked in the least confrontal way he knew how, which was admittedly still pretty confrontal. Alex wrinkled his nose and shook his head softly, grabbing the blanket from the foot of his bed and covering himself with it. Justin seemed somewhat let down, taking his side of the sheet from Alex and settling himself into it. He exhaled a small breath before turning around so his back was to Alex. Alex rolled his eyes, poking Justin’s bare shoulder and moving so that his chest was adjacent to Justin’s back before beginning to speak. 

“It’s nothing you did wrong, believe me. We’re just… tired. And not sober. But that’s not to say—“ he inhaled “—that I don’t love you. Because I do.” Justin turned his head to the side, the most he could do to try and face Alex in their current position. 

“Really?” he choked out, a shine glazing over his eyes that Alex could barely pick up with only the soft moonlight peering through the window. Alex smiled, a low hum assuring Justin of what he’d said. 

“I love you too, Alex,” he smiled, closing his eyes and leaning back into the pillow. “I really do.”

Before sleep could claim him fully, Alex wrapped an arm protectively around Justin, resting somewhere near his chest. The two boys breathing in sync under a starry sky in the pale spring would forever be etched into the permanent memories of prom that night at Liberty High, and neither would have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> the ending is corny i know i might replace it eventually but i gotta get this out of my drafts


End file.
